Coming Home
by Sara Wolfe
Summary: With the Charmed Ones' powers bound, the world is still in need of a magical protector. Enter Paige Halliwell, twice-blessed Witchlighter...
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **Of all my _Charmed_ projects, this one is my personal favorite. Updates will probably be sporadic at best, as I've got about a dozen other projects that I'm working on at the same time. **  
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**Coming Home**

**Chapter One**

"Please, please, please-"

Patty didn't know what she was praying for. She'd been whispering the same words over and over for the last three minutes, and she didn't know if she was praying for the test results to be positive or negative.

The kitchen timer dinged, suddenly, and she startled at the sound. Slowly, almost reluctantly, she looked over at the bathroom counter, where all three of the tests were lined up neatly beside the sink. With a shaking hand, she reached out and picked up the first test. The single, pink line in the display window glared up at her as brightly as a neon sign. The other two tests displayed a pair of parallel lines and a plus sign, respectively, and she lined them up on the counter again, her hands still shaking.

Closing her eyes with a quiet sigh, Patty sank down onto the closed lid of the toilet. She scrubbed, tiredly, at her face with her hands, her mind whirling as she tried to think of what she was going to do, next.

She resisted the urge to reach out and grab the empty boxes from where they were sitting on the counter, reading the directions, yet again. She'd already read each of the boxes half a dozen times over; reading them again wasn't going to change the reality of the situation. No, she knew full well what the tests were saying. And they were all saying the same thing.

She was pregnant.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Patty quietly shut the bathroom door behind her and headed down the hallway, still in a daze. She was still lost in her thoughts, and she wandered into the room Prue and Piper shared, standing in the doorway and staring at the empty room for almost five minutes before she remembered that she'd actually been going downstairs.

Going down the stairs, she paused at the little table in the foyer holding a bunch of pictures of her daughters. Prue in her leotard from dance class, Piper at the zoo, with a parrot on her outstretched hand and a huge smile on her face, and Phoebe in her highchair in the kitchen, completely covered in flour and chocolate sauce. And her favorite, a group shot of the girls, beaming happily at the camera with their arms thrown around each other.

_'What am I going to do?'_ she thought, as she stared at the photo, and then her thoughts were cut off by a shriek of laughter coming from the kitchen.

In the kitchen, she found her mother and daughters sitting at the table. Prue and Piper were working on a puzzle – with Penny's help, and the occasional, not-so-helpful effort from Phoebe.

"Mama!" Prue cried, happily, when she saw her.

In an instant, her two oldest daughters had abandoned their puzzle to run across the room and wrap their arms around her in a hug.

"Mama, come see!" Piper exclaimed, eagerly, tugging on her hand and pulling her toward the table. "See what we did?"

"It's very beautiful, sweetheart," Patty said, glancing down at the half-finished puzzle while her girls beamed at her with pride.

"We did it all by ourselves," Piper informed her, solemnly.

"Grams helped," Prue interjected, poking Piper, and Patty automatically separated the girls before a fight could break out.

"And Phoebe un-helped," Piper finished, an exasperated tone to her voice as she looked over at her little sister.

"I'm sure she did the best she could," Patty said, soothingly. "Girls, why don't you two take Phoebe into the living room and watch some television for a little while?"

"Okay!" Prue and Piper chorused, happily.

Patty watched as Prue helped Phoebe down from her chair, and the three of them dashed into the living room. Then, she sank down into one of the empty chairs with a tired sigh.

"What's wrong?" Penny asked, sharply, and Patty looked up to see her mother practically boring a hole in her with the intensity of her gaze.

"What makes you think that something's wrong?" Patty asked, weakly, and her mother fixed her with a stern look.

"Don't give me that," she said, shaking her head. "After everything we've been through, you don't think that I can't tell when something is bothering you? You're pale, you're shaking-"

"I'm pregnant," Patty interrupted her, quietly, and she could practically hear her mother's teeth click together as she snapped her mouth shut.

"You're _what_?" Penny said, her voice rising in alarm.

"I'm pregnant," Patty repeated, as her mother stared at her in shock.

"You didn't go back to Victor, did you?" Penny asked her, incredulously, making the name sound like a bad word.

"Mother!" Patty exclaimed, indignantly, but Penny just shrugged, nonchalantly.

"What?" she said, defensively. "The only good things that ever came from that man are sitting in our living room."

"Victor is a good man," Patty said, defending her ex-husband. "But, no, it's not Victor. It's Sam," she added, softer, a moment later.

"Your Whitelighter?" Penny demanded, incredulously, and Patty wondered just how many men named Sam that she was supposed to know.

"Yes, Mother," she said, emphatically. "Sam."

"Well, how could this happen?" Penny demanded, and before Patty could say anything, she added testily, "I _know_ how this could happen-"

"We're in love," Patty interrupted her, ignoring the disdainful snort coming from her mother.

"And I suppose you don't care that everything about what you're doing is explicitly forbidden-" she started, but Patty cut her off.

"You think I don't know that?" she snapped, remembering just in time to keep her voice down so that the girls wouldn't hear her. "But, we can't – how do you stop yourself from falling in love with someone?"

Penny just sighed, an inscrutable expression on her face. "What are you going to do?" she finally asked.

"I don't know," Patty admitted, after a minute. "I have to tell Sam; that's the only thing I can think about, right now."

"I'll get the girls out of the house," Penny told her. "Give the two of you some privacy." Rising from her seat, she patted Patty comfortingly on the shoulder and added, "Everything is going to be all right, darling. I promise."

Patty gave her a weak smile, briefly covering her mother's hand with her own. Then, Penny disappeared into the living room, and Patty could hear her talking to the girls about going out for ice cream, and the girls' excited voices rising in response. There were a few minutes of noisy chaos as Penny got everyone ready to go out, and then the front door slammed shut, the house descending into sudden silence in their wake. Alone in the house, Patty sat in the quiet kitchen for a few minutes, just thinking.

"Sam?" she finally called out, and a few seconds later, a swirl of bright, white lights heralded his arrival.

A smile broke out across his face when he saw her, and as she looked at the man she loved so much, Patty could feel an answering smile forming in return. She tipped her head back to kiss him, as he bent down to her, her fingers lightly brushing the side of his face.

"I missed you," Sam said, as they parted. "I'm sorry I've been away so long."

"It's all right," Patty assured him. "Sam-" she added, a moment later, "I think that you should sit down."

"Is something wrong?" Sam asked, worriedly, as he took the seat she'd indicated. "Is it one of the girls?"

"The girls are fine," Patty reassured him, watching as he breathed a sigh of relief. "Sam," she began, nervously, as he looked at her, expectantly, "there's something I have to tell you."


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: **Thanks a million to my fantastic readers and reviewers. I love hearing what you guys think.

**Chapter Two**

Three days later, Patty was fixing breakfast for her daughters when she saw a flash of bright light out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head in time to see Sam poking his head into the doorway, an unusually serious expression on his face.

He cocked his head backward, and Patty nodded, silently, holding up a finger to indicate that she would join him in a minute. She finished flipping the pancakes, presenting them to her girls with powdered sugar and syrup.

"I'll be back in a second," Patty said, as they started eating. "Try to keep Phoebe from making too much of a mess."

Prue made an unintelligible noise that might have been agreement. Only slightly mollified, Patty went out into the hallway to where Sam was waiting for her.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, quietly, keeping her voice down.

"Patty, they know," Sam said, without preamble, and she could almost feel the floor dropping out from under her feet.

"How?" she demanded, incredulously, but Sam just shook his head.

"I don't know," he admitted, and he sounded utterly exhausted. "I've been sequestered with the Council all morning-"

"Are you all right?" Patty demanded, cutting him off. "Did they punish you?"

"No," Sam said, quickly, reassuringly, "nothing like that. They – they want to talk to us. To both of us, together."

"I – I can't leave the girls," Patty protested, automatically, glancing back at the kitchen. "Mother's out at the store; it's my day off from work, we're supposed to spend the day together-"

"The Elders are sending someone down to watch the girls," Sam told her, quietly. "Patty, they want to talk to us, now."

"Well, how am I supposed to trust someone I've never even met?" Patty started to demand, but then she was cut off by a swirl of bright lights forming next to Sam.

The lights coalesced into a young man with sandy blond hair. He looked nervously between Sam and Patty for a second before holding his hand out for Patty to shake.

"Mrs. Halliwell," he introduced himself, "I'm Leo Wyatt. I've been assigned to your daughters as their Whitelighter."

"Really," Patty said, her voice carefully neutral. "And, I'm supposed to trust you with my children?"

"Leo's a good man, sweetheart," Sam told her, quietly. "He'll keep them safe, I promise."

Patty stared at Leo for a long moment, fixing the Whitelighter with a long, appraising look.

"I will keep your daughters perfectly safe, Mrs. Halliwell," Leo assured her, and Patty finally nodded, reluctantly.

"I guess I don't have much of a choice, do I?" she asked, quietly. "Come on, then. I'll introduce you to the girls."

She led Leo into the kitchen where the girls were eating breakfast. Just like she'd anticipated, Phoebe had managed to become completely covered in syrup and powdered sugar. She was a sticky mess, and Patty practically itched to try and clean her up.

But, she controlled the mothering impulse, knowing that she didn't have any time to waste. She and Sam had been ordered to appear in front of the Elders, and if they took too long, the Elders might simply decide to summon them directly, heedless of the consequences.

"Prue, Piper," she called, quietly, and both girls looked over at her, curiously. "This is Leo," she went on, gesturing to the Whitelighter as the stepped up beside her. "He's going to be watching you for a little while."

"Why?" Prue demanded, looking at Leo, suspiciously.

"I have to go out for a while and run some errands," Patty hedged, and beside Prue, Piper's face fell in disappointment.

"No fair!" she cried, her high-pitched voice startling a sudden cry out of Phoebe.

Patty jerked around at the sound of her youngest daughter bursting into tears, but before she could move, Leo had crossed the kitchen to Phoebe's side. He plucked the wailing one-year-old out of her highchair, swinging her up into the air and startling a burst of laughter out of the baby.

"Hey, do you girls want to see some magic?" Leo asked Prue and Piper as he juggled Phoebe on his hip.

"What kind of magic?" Prue asked, still half glaring at the stranger standing in their kitchen. She'd always been distrustful of new babysitters.

"How about this?" Leo asked, and then he reached out and, with a dramatic flourish, produced a quarter from behind Prue's ear. Patty had seen the tell-tale flash of orbs inside Leo's hand, but to the girls, the money had come out of thin air.

Piper cheered when she saw the coin, and even Prue cracked a reluctant smile when Leo presented the quarter to her with an exaggerated bow.

"Do you want to see more?" Leo asked, with a smile, and Prue and Piper nodded, eagerly. Patty backed slowly out of the room, confident that she was leaving her daughters in good hands.

Out in the living room, Sam was waiting for her. Tension was clear on his face as he paced the length of the living room, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. He looked up at her as she stopped in front of him, a million questions in his eyes. He didn't voice any of them, though; he just wrapped his arms around her as she stepped into his embrace, holding her tightly as she laid her head on his chest.

"I'm scared," she whispered, and he stroked a hand soothingly through her hair.

"Everything is going to be okay," Sam soothed, and Patty lifted her head to look at him, blinking back the tears she refused to let fall.

"What if it isn't?" she asked, softly.

"It will be," Sam told her, firmly, his tone reassuring. "We're not going to let anything happen to our baby."

His hand drifted down to her stomach as he spoke, resting protectively over the baby. Patty placed her hand over his, twining their fingers together.

"Okay," she finally said, nodding, and Sam orbed them out of the Manor.

When they rematerialized up in the heavens, they were completely alone in a huge, white space. Patty looked up at Sam in confusion, but before she could ask if they were in the wrong place, the air around them started to shimmer. A second later, thirteen white-robed Elders stepped out of the mists, forming a circle around them.

"Thirteen?" Patty murmured, quietly, as she looked at the stone-faced Elders surrounding them. "That's a powerful magical number, and it cannot possibly be good, right now."

"They've called the full Council against us," Sam asked, a distinctly worried tone in his low voice. Then, he swallowed, hard, when the air shimmered again, and more Elders stepped into the white space, behind their Council brethren.

"It looks like they've called the entire heavens against us," Patty muttered, darkly.

Sam opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, one of the Elders stepped forward. He was an older man with close-cropped, steel-gray hair and a cold expression on his face. His very presence commanded the attention of everyone around them.

"Odin," Sam whispered, leaning close to her. "He's the head of the Council."

"Patricia Halliwell," Odin intoned, suddenly, making them both jump. "Samuel Wilder. Are you aware of why we have brought you both here before this Council, today?"

He fixed each of them with a somber, unblinking gaze, and Patty had to force herself not to squirm under his intense stare.

"Our baby," she finally said, her voice hollow, and Sam reached out and took her hand, squeezing reassuringly.

"As you are both well aware," Odin said, sternly, "any union between a witch and a Whitelighter is strictly forbidden."

"We know," Sam said, his voice unwavering as he stared defiantly at the Elder.

"Normally, a transgression of this nature would be severely punished," Odin went on. "But, certain circumstances have arisen which have swayed our opinion. As it seems, the entire course of history may be affected."

"What are you talking about?" Patty asked, cautiously, exchanging a worried look with Sam.

The Elder gestured behind him, and one of the lower-ranking Elders on the fringes of the group made his way forward to join the rest of the Council. Patty recognized the man she'd known as Ramus, and she wondered, briefly, what her mother's old Whitelighter was doing there.

"As you may be aware," Ramus said, into the silence, "I have the power to see the future."

Patty nodded, uneasily, unconsciously squeezing Sam's hand tighter as she waited for the newly-appointed Elder to continue speaking.

"I have seen many potential futures, recently," Ramus went on, his voice grave. "In one, a future where the Charmed Ones had been destroyed and the world decimated by Evil; in another, a peaceful Utopia. The other visions run along the same lines, some good, and some bad. And in the center of those visions was a child." He stopped, fixing her and Sam with a pointed look. "This child."

"Other Seers have been reported having similar visions," Odin said, picking up where Ramus had left off. "This child is vital to the survival of good magic."

"What about my daughters?" Patty asked, picking up on one of the futures that Ramus had described. "What about their survival?"

"I see many, conflicting futures," Ramus said, slowly, staring off into the distance. "Only time will tell which future will prevail."

"Her daughters are the Charmed Ones," Sam argued, as Patty looked up at him in shock. "The most powerful witches to walk the face of the Earth. No demon could-"

"Their powers are bound," Ramus broke in, interrupting Sam.

"Only to protect them," Patty insisted. "To save their lives from a warlock."

"Your intent was good," a third Elder, this one a woman with short blonde hair, spoke up, gently. "But, it crippled the side of Good in the battle against Evil, and we cannot leave the world without a champion."

"And, you want to make our child that champion?" Sam asked, cautiously.

"Exactly," the woman confirmed, nodding. "She will be a powerful witch, using her powers to protect the Innocent."

"She?" Patty asked, quietly, as the Elder nodded again, smiling. "I'm going to have another daughter?"

"What if we don't want that kind of life for our daughter?" Sam argued, suddenly, a challenging tone in his voice as he wrapped his arms protectively around Patty and their baby.

"We do not require your permission," Odin told him, flatly. "We are giving you the chance to raise your daughter with her family. But, we can just as easily give her to someone else to raise. Someone more cooperative."

"Odin!" the female Elder scolded. "Don't say it like that!" Her tone softened as she turned to face Patty and Sam. "What we mean," she corrected, "is that if the stress of a fourth child is too much for you to handle, then we can find her a good home, where she will be well-loved-"

"You're not taking my baby!" Patty snarled, surprising even herself with her own vehemence as she glared at the assembled Elders.

"We have no desire to separate the child from her sisters," the woman continued, still in that placating tone.

"We'll raise our daughter, Sandra," Sam spoke up, the finality in his voice ending the discussion for everyone involved.

"And, she'll be taught about magic," Patty added, "if that's what it takes to keep her with us. Now, can we go home, please?"

She knew, from the way that Odin's eyes sparked with anger, that she was treading dangerously close to insubordination. And she knew that they could still take her baby from her if they wanted, and she and Sam would never see their daughter, again. But, she couldn't bring herself to be careful around the Elders. They just made her so angry.

"Very well," Odin said, suddenly, startling her. "We will be watching."

And with that ominous warning, he waved his hand. Bright lights obscured Patty's vision, and when she could see again, she and Sam were standing in the living room of the Manor.

"It looks like we won that round," Patty said, lightly, curling her arms protectively around her still-flat stomach.

"For now," came Sam's quiet answer. "We won, for now."


	3. Chapter 3

__**Author's Note:** Thanks to everyone who's been reading and reviewing. You guys are awesome.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Six Months Later<strong>_

Slowing the car, Patty turned onto the dirt road that she'd missed the first two times she'd driven by.

_'The girls come here every year for camp,'_ she thought, irritated with herself as she drove down the bumpy dirt road. _'You'd think that I would have an easier time finding it.'_

It took her another fifteen minutes to reach Camp Skylark. To her immense relief, the campgrounds looked deserted.

_'Thank god,'_ she thought, gratefully, as she put the car in park. _'The last thing I need is a bunch of Innocents running around getting in my way.'_

She took a minute to herself before she got out of the car. Staring out at the tranquil-looking lake, she rested a hand protectively over her protruding stomach, and she felt the baby kick under her palm.

"Ready to go vanquish your first demon?" she asked, affectionately, and she got another kick in reply.

Getting out of the car, Patty headed towards the dock that stretched out over the lake. Her steps faltered as she got closer to the water, and she had to force herself to keep moving until she was standing at the end of the dock.

The water was quiet beneath her, but it wasn't going to stay that way for long. Not once the demon was aware of her presence.

_'I'm not going to let you hurt another Innocent,'_ she thought, fiercely, as she glared at the lake. _'You don't get to have anyone else, especially not my girls.'_

Backing up a few steps, she grabbed the power cables attached to the transformer. Then, she moved forward as far as she could.

"Come and get me!" she shouted, her voice ringing out over the water. "I'm here, you evil son of a bitch!"

For a second, it didn't seem as though the demon could hear her. Then, the water around the dock started churning, wildly, foaming and frothing under her feet. A form rose up out of the water, towering over her, and Patty found herself face to face with the nameless demon that had terrorized Camp Skylark for too long.

"You're finished," she growled, the words filling her with new determination as she stepped forward to meet the demon.

"Patty, no! Stop!"

She whirled around at the sound of the familiar, beloved voice, staring in horror as her husband came barreling down the dock towards her. She flung her hands up out of instinct, freezing Sam in his tracks, and then she turned her attention back to the demon.

In the few, scant seconds it had taken her to deal with Sam, the demon had moved forward to engulf her. Patty found herself petrified with terror, unable to move even an inch as the wall of water descended upon her in slow motion.

She raised her hands, instinctively, in a futile effort to protect herself. Then, she stared in amazement at the shield that formed between her and the water, completely surrounding her as the demon battered uselessly at the shield.

The demon retreated back into the lake, water whirling wildly into a tight cyclone that rose several hundred feet into the air. Patty dropped the power cables, useless now that the demon was too far away, and flung her hands out. She was trying to freeze the demon, even though she knew it wasn't going to have any effect. But, she couldn't just stand there and not do anything.

Then, to her utter shock, a jagged bolt of lightning left her outstretched hands.

The lightning struck the demon, making it flail in place, screaming a high-pitched, unearthly sound. The demon tried to escape the energy coming from her hands, but the lightning just kept coming, and in less than a minute, the demon had been vanquished.

As soon as the demon was gone, the lightning disappeared as abruptly as it had appeared. Still staring at the water in shock, Patty backed up slowly. When she bumped into something immovable, she whirled around to stare at Sam. The brief contact had broken her freeze over him, and Sam jerked forward as though still running, stopping himself just before he would have bowled her over.

"Patty," he gasped, and then she felt herself being pulled into a crushing hug against his chest.

"I'm okay," Patty whispered, her voice breaking as she clung to Sam. "I'm okay."

"What happened?" Sam demanded, his voice muffled with his face buried in her hair. "Patty, you froze me."

"I – I didn't want you to get hurt," she said, shakily, her face still buried against his chest. "Sam, the baby-"

"Is she-" Sam asked, suddenly, his eyes worried as his hand hovered over her abdomen, already glowing with healing energy.

"She's fine," Patty hastened to reassure him, watching as the fear faded from his eyes. "She's better than fine, actually. She vanquished the demon."

"What?" Sam asked, confused, and Patty chuckled at the expression on his face. "The baby? Are you sure?"

"Well, it was either the baby, or I spontaneously developed the ability to throw lightning," Patty told him, wryly. "Oh, and a pretty powerful shield, too. Can't forget that one."

"She has powers from the womb," Sam echoed, stunned.

"It's not unheard of," Patty reminded him. "I had premonitions when I was pregnant with Phoebe, telekinetic bursts with Prue-"

"But, none of them ever vanquished a demon," Sam broke in. "And, besides, they're the Charmed Ones."

"And the Elders seem to think that our daughter is going to be strong enough to fight in their stead," Patty finished. Looking out at the serene lake, she commented, softly, "I think I'm beginning to believe them."

Sam looked down at her stomach, one hand drifting down to rest over the baby. He smiled when she kicked his hand, stirring excitedly in response to his magic.

"She's going to be a daddy's girl, that's for sure," Patty told him, an affectionate smile on her face.

Sam sighed, wrapping his arms around Patty as he pulled her back to rest against his chest. His hands still rested against her abdomen. He was staring out at the lake with a pensive, closed-off expression on his face.

"What's on your mind?" Patty finally asked, after they'd stood in silence for several, long minutes.

"We can't keep going on like this, Patty," Sam told her, gravely.

"The demon needed to be vanquished," Patty replied, quietly. "I couldn't ask Mother to do it."

"And so you came down here by yourself, while pregnant with our unborn daughter," Sam commented. "Patty-"

"Sam, the campgrounds are in use from April to October," Patty told him. "Summer camp for the kids starts in two weeks. This place is going to be crawling with Innocents for the next five months. If I waited until after the baby was born to go after this demon, a dozen people could have lost their lives. I had to act, now."

"You shouldn't have had to act, at all," Sam said, sounding stressed.

"Well, who else is there?" Patty asked, rhetorically. "Sam, the Warren line has been the dominant magical force in San Francisco for over seventy years. For the last dozen, Mother and I have basically been the only ones capable of facing down demons."

"There are other witches in San Francisco," Sam protested, but Patty shook her head.

"Small-time practitioners," she corrected him. "No real power among them, unless you count the Montana and Calloway clans, but they've spent so long fighting each other that I doubt they'd ever be able to let go of their enmity long enough to fight evil." Shaking her head, ruefully, she added, "Why don't their Whitelighters do anything about that endless feud?"

"Their Whitelighters quit," Sam said. "And the Elders let them, which should tell you how sick and tired they are of this whole mess. Once they started manifesting energy balls, the Elders figured they'd gone dark, and decided to wash their hands of the whole thing."

"Great," Patty sighed. "So, I guess we can effectively count them out? Which still brings us back to our original issue," she reminded him. "Mainly that there's no one else out there who can fight. We're alone."

"You shouldn't be," Sam said, his lips pressed into a thin line. "I'm going to talk to some other Whitelighters. There have got to be other witches out there who can fight."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Two Months Later<strong>_

"And how many demons were there?"

Patty sighed, leaning back against the couch cushions as she idly played with the tightly curled phone cord.

"Just the one," she reassured the woman on the other end of the line. "I think it was a warlock, but you need to be careful, he can-"

"Make my blood boil," Marina Nicolae finished for her, smoothly. "Yes, Patty, you've told me. Three times already."

"Sorry," Patty apologized. "I guess I'm just a worrier."

"Aren't we all?" Marina remarked, with a quiet chuckle. "Don't worry about it; this makes up for the half-dozen emergency phone numbers I gave you this morning when I dropped Ava off. How is she doing, by the way?"

Patty smiled at the note of barely-restrained urgency she could hear in the other woman's voice. "Ava's fine," she reassured her, as she looked over to where the three-year-old was playing with her own daughters. "She's been an absolute angel. Wish I could say the same about my own girls," she remarked, wryly, sighing in resignation when Piper stole one of Phoebe's toys, making the toddler wail in frustration.

"It sounds like you've got your hands full," Marina said, laughing.

"I'm not the only one," Patty reminded her, pointedly. "You and Lydia aren't going to have a picnic with that warlock. I just hate not being able to be out there, helping you-"

"Don't you even think about it," a new voice said, sharply, as the phone was taken out of Marina's hands. "You're eight months pregnant, _dragă_, and you're not to get up off that couch, do you understand?"

"You're worse than my husband, Lydia," Patty told the other woman, with a sigh.

"It's her big-sister tendencies," Marina spoke up, probably leaning over Lydia's shoulder to reach the phone. "You should have tried growing up with her."

"I want you two to promise me that you're going to be careful," Patty said, worriedly, the warlock flashing in her memory.

"We will," Marina told her. "Patty, we'll be fine. Between me, Lydia, and _waffediyok_, the warlock won't know what hit him. We'll call you when it's done."

Patty nodded, her hands tightening involuntarily on the phone as she hung up. She hadn't been lying when she'd told Marina that she hated not being out there, with them. But, the fact that she couldn't fight was the whole reason that she and Sam had set up the magical network in the first place.

Working with several other Whitelighters and their charges, they'd set up a network of witches and other magical practitioners across the country. It had taken time to get going, but now, instead of the solo hunting that had gone on, before, witches were teaming up to take down the demons that threatened them. That was how Patty had met Marina and Lydia; the Romani sisters had been aware of the presence of evil among them, but they hadn't fought demons until they'd been approached by Sam. The women had been happy to add their expertise, and Lydia's unusual powers, to the fight, though, and they'd proved themselves invaluable.

_'I just wish they weren't out there, alone,'_ Patty thought, squeezing her hands into fists when she looked down at Ava, playing on the living room floor.

Sensing her gaze, the little girl looked up from the game she and Phoebe were playing, and she gave Patty a bright smile. She scrambled up onto the couch beside Patty, reaching inquisitively toward her stomach.

"It's okay," Patty said, encouragingly, when Ava hesitated, looking curiously up at her. "Maybe you'll feel her kick."

Ava giggled as she placed her hand gently on Patty's stomach, and then her eyes grew wide when she felt the baby kick under her palm.

"She wants to come out," she confided, solemnly, in Patty.

"It's a little early, yet," Patty told her. "How about waiting a month, hey, kiddo?" she suggested, to her unborn daughter, and Ava laughed again, jumping off the couch to rejoin Phoebe.

"I see we have a guest," her mother commented from the doorway, and Patty looked up as Penny walked across the room to sink down onto the couch beside her. "Her mother is out hunting demons?"

"Marina and Lydia are taking care of that warlock I saw, earlier," Patty replied. Rubbing at her temples, she added, "That's the third premonition this week. They're getting more frequent as she gets bigger."

"She's manifested all of her sisters' powers," Penny remarked, as she glanced down at her other three grandchildren.

"Among others," Patty said, wryly. "She's getting stronger by the day. I'm worried that the Elders will expect too much of her," she confided in her mother, quietly.

"She'll be able to handle it," Penny said, confidently. "She's a Halliwell, after all."

"She's not even born, yet," Patty started to protest, but then she stopped at the feel of an all-too-familiar twinge of pain running through her abdomen. "Oh, ow."

"Patty?" Penny asked, concern in her voice, and Patty shot her a shaky smile.

"Mother, I think you should call Sam," she told her, and the older woman shot her a suspicious look.

"Why?" she asked, cautiously.

"Because I don't think he'd like to miss the birth of his daughter," Patty replied, weakly.

* * *

><p>Three hours later, Patty propped herself up in bed, holding out her hands as Sam carefully handed her their newborn daughter.<p>

"She's beautiful," she breathed, as she cradled the infant to her chest. At the sound of her voice, her daughter opened bright blue eyes to stare, curiously, up at her. "What should we name her?" Patty went on, looking up at Sam.

"Well, it's got to be something that starts with P," Sam joked, smiling down at the two of them. "It wouldn't do to break tradition, after all."

"You know, I don't even know how that tradition got started," Patty told him. "The first Warren to have her name start with a P was Prudence Warren, but I don't know when it became a regular occurrence."

"Well, no matter how it started," Sam replied, "we're going to continue it. It seems to have brought everyone else good luck, after all." Thinking about it for a few moments, he added, "I don't think you've ever had a Paige in the family."

"You know, I don't think we have," Patty said. "Paige Melinda has a nice ring to it."

"Paige Melinda," Sam agreed. "I like it."

"But, is it going to be Halliwell or Wilder?" Patty asked him.

"Halliwell," Sam said, immediately. "You and your mother have made it into a formidable name in the Underworld."

"But, I want her to have something of yours, too," Patty insisted.

"She already does," Sam said, smiling fondly down at his baby girl. "She has my love."

"And on that sappy note," Penny spoke up, dryly, from the doorway, "I have some girls who would like to come say hello to their new sister."

Patty smiled at her oldest daughters as they crowded onto the bed around her, peering curiously down at the baby.

"Her name is Paige Melinda," Patty told them, proudly.

"She's all red and wrinkly," Prue said, frowning down at the infant. "She looks like an alien."

"I think she's beautiful, Mommy," Piper declared, shooting Prue a dirty look. "Can I hold her?"

"Maybe when she's a little stronger," Patty told her, and Piper nodded, settling back against the pillows beside Patty, tracing her finger across Paige's cheek. "What about you, Phoebe?" Patty went on, turning to her second-youngest daughter. "Do you want to see your new sister?"

Silently, Phoebe crept forward from where she'd been hovering at the edge of the bed, and she peered down at Paige with a blank expression on her face. Then, she looked up at Patty with an absolutely crestfallen and betrayed expression on her face, like she'd just realized that she was no longer the youngest and cutest thing in the room.

"What's the matter, Phoebe?" Patty asked, concerned. "Don't you like Paige?"

In answer, Phoebe blew a raspberry down at the baby, startling a thin, high-pitched wail from her. Then, Phoebe scrambled off the bed and bolted down the hallway, where Patty could hear the distant slam of her bedroom door.

"Clearly, this isn't a happy event for everyone," Penny remarked, as she looked after the departed toddler. "I'll go after her."

"Me, too," Prue declared, jumping off the bed and running out of the room. Patty sighed as she watched her go.

"At least you like your sister, right?" she asked Piper, who looked offended that Patty had even asked.

"I love you, Paige Melinda," she said, somberly, looking down at her new baby sister. "Even if Prue and Phoebe don't."

"Your sisters will come around," Sam told the little girl, who nodded up at her stepfather. "They just need some time."

"That's okay," Piper said. "I just get Paige all to myself, then." She looked inordinately happy with that thought, and Patty was cheered at the thought that at least one of her daughters was pleased with the new arrival.

As if she'd understood Piper's comment, Paige yawned and stretched, her grasping hand curling around her big sister's finger. Piper smiled in delight at the contact, cooing down at the baby.

"Mommy," Piper told her, "Paige can sleep in my room tonight, if you want."

"I think we'll save that option for when she's a little older," Patty said, sharing a smile with Sam. "I think for tonight, though, she's going to sleep in here, with me and Sam."

"Which looks like it's going to be right now," Sam added, as Paige let out another yawn, her eyes drooping shut. "I'll put her to sleep," he added, as he reached for his daughter.

"Goodnight," Piper chirped, kissing Paige on the cheek before she ran out of the room.

"Sleep well, little one," Patty added, as she passed Paige over to Sam's arms. "And welcome to the family."


End file.
